Comments

The National Museum of Scotland is about a 20 minute(1 mile) walk from the Sheraton. It's an excellent museum. Lots to see.
Or you can take a self guided tour starting at the Sheraton. Go up to the level the restaurant is on, out the front door and turn left on Lothian. Walk towards Princes st and turn right. There is Princes park with lots of memorials including the Scott monument. The other side of the street has shops and department stores in case you forgot something in your packing. Turn right again at one of several routes along the way and it will bring you into the oldest section and the Royal Mile. Lots of touristy things to see there.
If you shop Amazon they have a map i found very handy made by a company called popout. It actually has the Sheraton on it and all the places your likely to go in Edinburgh.
Outside the city several have recommended the Royal Yacht Britania.
This was our first Tauck land tour and we really enjoyed it.

While Britannia is technically in the suburb of Leith down on the waterfront, it really is just one big city. You can get there and back easily and cheaply by local city (Lothian) buses or taxi. There is a mall at the pier with shopping and restaurants. We did that on our pre-tour arrival day. On Day 1, before the Welcome Dinner, my wife and I took a bus to Craigmillar Castle, a nearby castle/partial ruin associated with Mary Queen of Scots and supposedly where she hatched the plot to kill her husband. You can go through the whole structure and get a great view of the city and surrounding countryside from the battlemounts. It is located in a "natural" park, across from the Royal Infirmary. It was really dramatic to walk up a gentle hill on a small path through the tall park grass and see the castle as we crested a small rise! We first learned about it years ago on "Amazing Race." It is a nice place to visit and avoid the crowds- just the two of us and 4 other people were there! We then got on another bus to Rosslyn Chapel, made famous in the book and movie, "Davinci Code." We met our friends, who decided to forego Craigmillar, at Rosslyn Chapel, toured it, and then the four of us returned to the Sheraton by bus. (the bus schedules are online so I had it all planned before leaving the States. Of course, the concierge can also assist. There are other things you can do and see both near- if you are into walking and or hiking you can walk through Princes Street Gardens, see the shops on Princes Street, or hike up to Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park- and far- with car and driver visit Hopetoun House, Linlithgow Palace (there is an annual jousting tournament there every summer), St Andrews golf course, Tantallon Castle, etc., etc. So much to see, so little time!

In the evening if you are into concerts and plays, you might want to check out what is playing at Usher Hall and the Lyceum across the street from the Sheraton. He is not my cup of tea, but I think Neil Diamond was playing Usher Hall when we were there in 2013.

Rosslyn Chapel (the scaffolds which had covered the structure for the past 14 years were gone when we visited in 2013. The Holy Grail is not buried there (as far as we know)

View from our window of Usher Hall with Edinburgh Caste in the backgroud:

One the way back from Rosslyn Chapel, we had to weave our way through a very large crowd watching Andy Murray play (and win) at Wimbledon on a Jumbotron. While not a "home town" boy and contrary to what some of the announcers incorrectly claimed, he is from Glasgow, Scotland, not England). There was a lot of drinking going on but the very large crowd was surprisingly well behaved- no "soccer hooligans."

As usual Alan presents a very full list. I don’t know how he finds time for a beer or a glass of wine. (;-). We did the Britannia on our free day, then had some beer, wine, and food. I thought the Britannia was well worth the time.